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tives would be to encourage residents to take a more personal interest in the cleanliness and appearance of the estate in which they live. I hope to put these proposals before the Resettlement Management Select Committee before long, but I have no illusions about the speed at which they will produce results. Action on these lines would also be directed towards hawkers in the estates.
I should mention three other steps which have already been taken to improve sanitation of which members may not be fully aware.
(a) First, some of the older estates did not originally have off-road refuse collection points. As a result, refuse trailers were stationed on pavements, in roads, and anywhere that could be found. In the past two years, a determined effort has been made to improve this situation. Sites for off-road refuse collecting points have been agreed with other departments concerned in Shek Kip Mei, Wong Tai Sin, Hung Hom, Li Cheng Uk, Jordan Valley, Tai Hang Tung, and Kwun Tong estates. Not all of these are yet complete. These collecting points have screen walls and water taps for regular washing down of the area.
Besides
(b) Secondly, a continuing campaign has been in force for over a year to intensify the collection and removal of abandoned articles in estates; that is to say, boxes, baskets, and crates which residents dump and which are too bulky to be placed in refuse collecting vehicles, causing congestion; these abandoned articles are insanitary and may harbour vermin. At present, 30 lorryloads of abandoned articles are removed daily for burning, and this figure is going up.
(c) Thirdly, in an endeavour to reduce the amount of refuse which is thrown over the communal balconies, a new scheme was recently introduced at Hung Hom estate for providing a room-to-room collection service, free of charge. This scheme achieved some success in reducing the amount of refuse thrown down and has now been extended to Jordan Valley estate to see whether it will be effective in a larger community. If so, it may be introduced in all Mark I and II estates.
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As regards more recreational and amenity facilities in the older estates, continuing efforts are made to increase the number of playgrounds, rest gardens, etc. by converting open spaces that are not already committed to other useful purposes.
For instance, 2 more playgrounds are planned for Shek Kip Mei, two more for Chai Wan, and additions to existing ones at Jordan Valley and Kwun Tong. Although these playgrounds have in some cases been planned for over a year, they cannot be established all at once because funds for the purpose come from the Urban Amenities Block Vote, and the Urban Services Department, which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of recreation grounds, must measure these projects alongside similar competing demands from new estates and from other parts of the urban areas. Nevertheless, I am satisfied that a fair proportion of the vote is being spent on recreation grounds for our estates.
In the long term, it would be a great help in improving living conditions, sanitation, and recreation and amenity facilities if we could convert the accommodation in Mark I and II blocks into small self-contained flats, or even pull them down and replace them by taller buildings of a more modern design and spaced further apart. There are, however, no plans for doing this at present, and I suggest that it would be premature to adopt either course so long as the need for more housing is so pressing.
DR. BELL:- Mr. Chairman, in regard to long-term planning referred to in paragraph 6. When a new estate is decided upon, is the amount of available space for recreation set aside there and then, and is it planned right from the start so that perhaps it could be ready when the estate is built?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- Yes, Mr. Chairman, that is so now, and it has been so for some years. Certainly since I have been in the department. When an estate is in the planning stage, the Public Works Department always includes provision for recreation grounds from the start, before building even begins.
DR. BELL: Who decides, Mr. Chairman, what type of recreation should be there? Is this brought before the Resettlement Policy Select Committee, or Management Select Committee, or before the Parks, Recreation, and Amenities Committee?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- As far as I can recall, we haven't recently consulted the Management Select Committee on the development of playgrounds in Resettlement estates, but I think we
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